Crowd flocks to Monk Gardens in Wausau to see raptors

One-year-old Brady Baumann of Mosinee points to a raptor held by Nicole Hildebrandt, an intern at REGI, Saturday at the Robert W. Monk Public Gardens in Wausau. The raptors are provided by the Raptor Education Group Inc. in Antigo.
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WAUSAU – It’s not every day you can take a stroll in the woods and see three different kinds of owls, two types of falcons and a hawk — all in one place.

That was possible Saturday during Raptors in the Gardens, a collaboration between Robert W. Monk Public Gardens in Wausau and the Raptor Education Group Inc. an Antigo-based wildlife rehabilitation and education center.

Event coordinator Dawn Stein said both nonprofits benefit when people get up-close and personal with birds they otherwise might never get to see.

“People can get familiar with the garden, and they can get familiar with REGI, and they get to see the birds — they’re right there,” Stein said.

Last year, 230 people attended Raptors in the Gardens. On Saturday, that many people had already visited the gardens only halfway through the event.

REGI director of education Abbey Ruppert quickly identified the No. 1 question she received from children: “Can we touch them?”

The answer, by the way, is no.

“Raptors don’t like to be touched,” Ruppert said. “They’re not social in the wild like parrots or dogs or cats. We are able to touch them for medical exams, but other than that, even we don’t touch them.”

Ruppert said it’s baby bird season at REGI, so they’ve got their hands full.

“It’s been very, very busy. We have been getting lots of baby birds in every day,” she said. “Right now, we have 27 baby robins plus all sorts of other babies.”

Karen Fleury, 48, of Cottage Grove stopped by the gardens because her daughter, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior-to-be Nicole Hildebrandt, is interning at REGI this summer.

“She loves it,” Fleury said of her daughter. “She loves the owls and learning to rehab the raptor birds. She really, really enjoys saving the birds.”

Fleury said Nicole’s summer job has given her mother a heightened awareness of our feathered friends.

“Now when I drive, I look in the trees along the highway and see if I can see any birds in the trees, like hawks,” she said.

Aside from the babies, Ruppert said REGI is busy rehabbing other birds, with about 200 total in-house now.

“I know last year we did hit over 800 patients, which has been our highest so far, because typically we average 500 to 700 a year,” Ruppert said. “It’s looking like we’re probably going to hit that 800 mark again this year.”

Bob Dohr can be reached at 715-845-0660. Find him on Twitter as @BobDohr1.